Hathras reflects: After the stampede

Animesh Singh

His mother Jaywanti Devi was an ardent follower of ‘Bhole Baba’ — former Uttar Pradesh Police constable Suraj Pal — and took his wife Rajkumari and eight-year-old daughter Bhoomi along on the fateful morning of July 2 for the satsang (congregation) in Sikandra Rao town near Hathras. They never returned. Listless and grief-stricken, Vinod struggles to speak. When he does, the anger is palpable.

Sitting outside his two-room house in Sokhana village, near Hathras, the daily-wage labourer says he does not know much about the self-styled godman, “but whoever he is, he should be ashamed of himself”. Then the emotions pour out — “I don’t know whether this Baba is god reincarnate or not, all I want to ask is, couldn’t he have come back to see in what condition his followers were after the stampede? Does he understand the concept of humanity? Could he not have taken care of his followers? You just need to be a human being for that. And yet, he says he has divine powers.”

Harimohan, a resident of Hathras town, lost his aunt in the stampede that day. “Only our Chachi used to frequent his congregations. We have no clue about this Baba. She used to fight with us if we tried to reason with her or dissuaded her from going to such satsangs,” he says.

This seems to be a common thread among the families of victims — most of the male members spoken to claim they are not even remotely aware of the godman’s activities and the influence he held over the women in their families.

There are several versions about how the stampede took place on the afternoon of July 2. An oft-repeated sequence of events that is narrated is that the tragedy occurred when there was a sudden rush to catch a glimpse of the self-styled godman and touch the soil (‘charan dhool’) where he exited the site that day

Also known as Baba Narayan Hari and Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba, Suraj Pal had left the police force more than 20 years ago to become a religious preacher. His followers range from the poor to the influential, but he has a major following among the Dalits.

It is difficult to put a definitive finger on the reasons behind the popularity of ‘Bhole Baba’. For women of the poorest sections of society, the congregations could be an outlet to escape, even if for a brief moment, the punishing realities of existence — lack of money, loneliness or domestic violence. Ignorance or blind faith, the vulnerability is apparent. As in the case of Mukesh Kumar. Distraught after losing his daughter Lata in the stampede, he and his inconsolable elder daughter say their faith in ‘Bhole Baba’ remains unshakeable. “The stampede was the result of indiscipline among the crowd. Period. He had nothing to do with it.” On the Baba choosing to abscond after the tragedy, both give him the benefit of doubt, and are unwilling to pin the blame on him.

There are several versions about how the stampede took place on the afternoon of July 2. An oft-repeated sequence of events that is narrated is that the tragedy occurred when there was a sudden rush to catch a glimpse of the self-styled godman and touch the soil (‘charan dhool’) where he exited the site that day.

On July 3, the Uttar Pradesh government formed a three-member judicial commission, headed by a retired high court judge, to probe the tragedy and to look into the possibility of a conspiracy behind the stampede. Police said the number of people present at the venue was three times the permitted limit and most of the 121 followers who died were women.

The appeal of ‘Bhole Baba’ is not limited to congregational settings. “My wife had a cancerous growth which got cured after she applied ‘charan dhool’ on it. This is what belief in Baba can do,” claims Mukesh. This sentiment is echoed by Vijay Kumar Gautam, a farmer from Suraj Pal’s ancestral village Bahadur Nagar in Etah. He distinctly remembers how a relative in his family got cured after applying ‘charan dhool’ on his body. “The faith in Baba needs to be experienced, one cannot explain it to anyone,” Vijay says.

On Saturday, Suraj Pal alias ‘Bhole Baba’, in a message, said he was depressed over the stampede incident and asked the affected families to have faith in the judiciary. He has not been named in the FIR. The previous night, main accused Dev Prakash Madhukar, the ‘mukhya sevadar’ of the satsang, surrendered in Delhi.

Suraj Pal used to be part of the intelligence unit of Uttar Pradesh Police in Agra. His die-hard followers say as a godman, he used to preach humanity, kindness and equality among all. “He never promoted himself. You will not find any advertisements of him in newspapers or on television channels. He never supported any political party or leader too. Yet, people who come to his ancestral village Bahadur Nagar for the first time, come again and again,” says Vijay Kumar Gautam.

A sprawling ashram stands just outside Baba’s ancestral village, where he was born in a farming family of six brothers and sisters. The family owned huge parcels of land. The ashram, replete with guards dressed in pinkish-khaki uniforms, has imposing gates. A volunteer at the ashram says that it was built by Baba himself, and that he last visited the village around 10 to 12 years back.

Located on the road leading to the village, passersby can be seen bowing before the gates.

A brother and a sister of Suraj Pal still live in the village, says Rajendra Prasad, a resident of Bahadur Nagar. When asked if he believes in what Baba preaches and if his teachings echo the thoughts of Dr BR Ambedkar, whose picture is prominently displayed outside his house, Prasad says, “Suraj Pal speaks about unity and humanity, whereas Baba Saheb worked towards uplifting the poor, something which the godman is not doing.”

Villagers are unanimous in their contention though that his congregations have always been well organised and peaceful and the July 2 incident could be “due to some kind of a conspiracy”.

“Despite his initial satsangs causing us discomfort due to the crowd, we learnt to plan our daily routine whenever his congregations took place here. However, seeing the surging crowds, he started holding these outside the village and at larger venues,” says Jagjivan Ram, a farmer. An Aligarh-based journalist, Akram Shah, says that despite having organised several such large congregations in the past, such an incident had never taken place earlier. “It can be due to a conspiracy by those who are jealous of his hold on the community to which he caters.”

Jatavs, who constitute a significant percentage of the population in western Uttar Pradesh, especially in the Aligarh, Hathras and Etah belt, form the majority of his followers, as Suraj Pal, too, belongs to the same community.

This could be one of the reasons why the political class has been cautious while reacting to the incident. None of the leaders, be it Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath or even Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, have taken his name in public and have only focused on the organisational failures.

On Friday, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met the family members of the victims. Before meeting the next of kin of the deceased in Hathras, he made a stop at Aligarh. He has sought maximum compensation without delay.

However, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, while demanding strict action against Suraj Pal, said the “poor, Dalits and the oppressed should not worsen their misery and pain by getting misled by the superstitions and hypocrisy of many such babas”.

The police, meanwhile, have arrested seven persons in connection with the incident, including chief organiser Madhukar. However, Anandi Devi, the mother of one of the arrested persons, Mukesh Kumar, pointed out, “The police took him away even though he wasn’t connected with the Baba’s team and nor was he present on the occasion.”

A lot of questions remain unanswered.